ISLAMABAD: Majority of the irregular migrants (131643) were deported from Saudi Arabia followed by United Arab Emirates (32458) and Iran (28684) during the years 2012-15.

This was revealed by `Labour Migration from Pakistan: 2015 Status Report’ through Deportation Statistics acquired from Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The number of deported migrants was followed by 17248 from Oman, 14145 from Greece, 9778 from United Kingdom and 8861 from Malaysia.

The total number of deported Pakistanis from these above mentioned countries were 242817 during the years 2012-15.
The report stated that the number of deportee was greatest in the year 2014 (73,064) and smallest during the year 2010 (46,032).

Most of the individuals deported from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates were job seekers and businessmen and those deported from Iran were in transit to Greece. While deportations from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is attributed mainly to security-related issues, the report revealed.

These statistics suggested that deportation is continuing to increase and these trends might be indicative of an increase in the trafficking of persons and the smuggling of migrants.

A study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that the majority of irregular migration involved migrants originating from Punjab province especially from Gujrat, Gujranwala, Mandi Bahauddin, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan and Sialkot districts.

The report said that around 513,231 individuals were deported from different countries during the Year 2007 to June 2015, registering an year wise upward trend. From 2005-06 to 2014-15, around 932,051 migrant workers were
stranded in destination countries due to lack of proper documentation and thus deported.

The largest number of stranded Pakistanis (at 882,887) was deported from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia followed by Doha and Qatar (at 4,200). Around 14,628 migrant workers were detained in jails in destination countries during the said period while the consulate officials or community welfare attaches made 4,200 monitoring visits
to the employment sites of the migration workers.

Most of the visits were made in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (1,863, followed by Kuwait (652), Manama, Bahrain (496) and Seoul, Korea (400), the report said.